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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Apple has been granted a permanent injunction against Psystar Corporation, preventing the company from selling its computers with Apple's Mac OS X pre-installed.

In documents filed on 15 December, the District Court for the Northern District of California granted the injunction, which effectively bans Psystar from selling PC hardware running Apple's operating system.

The company began selling Mac clone systems in 2008, which quickly resulted in legal action from Apple. The Mac maker has a reputation for vigorously protecting its products, and the end-user licence agreement for OS X explicitly restricts the use of the software to Apple systems.

A partial agreement was reached earlier this month when Psystar agreed to pay damages and legal fees to Apple, but the latest move appears to bring to a halt the company's aim of providing an alternative for buyers considering the Mac platform but not on Apple's hardware.

Psystar also has a software tool, Rebel EFI, which allows users to install OS X on non-Apple hardware. While the permanent injunction does not explicitly cover this tool, the judge wrote in the ruling that "Psystar - if it continues to do so - sells Rebel EFI at its peril."

Apple declined to provide further information for this story. A spokesperson told V3.co.uk that the company does not comment on pending litigation.